Introduction

It is simply a matter of time before the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) will be realised — notwithstanding a great number of pending political and economic obstacles to the forming of such a union and of uncertainties regarding the historical process itself — even after the Maastricht accord. EMU — the creation of a monetary zone with one single currency in Europe — will have a pervasive impact on many facets of political and economic decision-making within the Community, many of which have been studied by the Commission in its ‘One market, one money’ report (Commission of the European Communities 1990). A single European currency will almost instantaneously rival the US dollar as the predominant international means of exchange. It will alter world financial flows, improve efficiency conditions at both the national and international level, and it is likely to stabilise price levels for most of the countries adhering to EMU.